Even as the sensational news about Income Tax raids on the former personal secretary of Telugu Desam Party president and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu a few months ago remains fresh in the memory of the people, yet another incident of Naidu’s personal assistant being involved in a forgery case surfaced on Thursday.
The police have booked a case against P Manohar, PA of the TDP chief taking care of the latter in his native assembly constituency of Kuppam in Chittoor district for quite a long time.
He is said to be the trusted lieutenant of Naidu in Kuppam and has control over the party affairs.
Cases were registered under Section 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery) and 471 (manipulation of documents) against Manohar in the Kuppam police station, following a complaint from local YSR Congress party leader A S Vidyasagar on Wednesday night.
According to the complainant, Manohar who was heading the 10-member committee of Sri Prasanna Tirupati Gangamamba Temple in Kuppam had collected Rs 90 lakh from various donors to celebrate the “jathara” of the deity in 2014-15.
While part of the amount was deposited in the Kuppam Cooperative Central Bank, Manohar told the committee members that he had deposited the remaining amount in another bank which would be utilised for celebration of festivities in the temple.
After YSR Congress party came to power, the government ordered an inquiry into the allegations of misappropriation of funds from the Kuppam Cooperative Central Bank.
During the inquiry, it was found that Manohar had diverted Rs 1 lakh to the fixed deposit by allegedly forging the signature of Vidyasagar in 2015.
Moreover, Manohar’s follower R R Srinivasulu had allegedly obtained loan to the extent of Rs 11.77 lakh from the bank showing the fixed deposit as the guarantee on instructions from Manohar, as per the statement given by the bank manager.
“By forging my signature for making unauthorised FD in the bank and taking loan showing it as a guarantee, Manohar had projected me as a defaulter,” Vidyasagar alleged.
Though Naidu might not be directly involved in the case, the forgery case against his personal assistant will definitely cause a dent to his image. The YSRC leaders will now gun for Naidu’s head in this regard.